Tomb Raider Series

[TheOrganization]

Your welcome,
just remember to play legend before you go and buy underworld in november

[DXP]

Your welcome,
just remember to play legend before you go and buy underworld in november

Will do

[Helegad]

It's quite short. You should have no problems finishing it in that time.

I reckon it's a bit unfair that Core makes five good Tomb Raider games, then on the first stuff up everyone says 'fuck off' and brings in a new developer. And the fact that Eidos dragged them along for the ride while THEY KNEW that Crystal was doing an Anniversary Edition too makes my blood boil. Core's AE looked pretty good, merging their oldies with Crystal's newies. And the fact that it was made for PSP would have had me at the local EB Games on release date.

I love PSP!

(P.S: My sister got a DS today... I'm looking forward to borrowing it)

[Rombie]

It's quite short. You should have no problems finishing it in that time.

I reckon it's a bit unfair that Core makes five good Tomb Raider games, then on the first stuff up everyone says 'fuck off' and brings in a new developer. And the fact that Eidos dragged them along for the ride while THEY KNEW that Crystal was doing an Anniversary Edition too makes my blood boil. Core's AE looked pretty good, merging their oldies with Crystal's newies. And the fact that it was made for PSP would have had me at the local EB Games on release date.

I love PSP!

(P.S: My sister got a DS today... I'm looking forward to borrowing it)

Problem was CORE didn't make 5 good games, they made two really good games, and three others which came out each year apart reusing the same thing with very little changes. Their "fuck off" was well deserved and a long coming.

I can't tell from your background when you originally played these games, but I played them all at the time of release starting with Tomb Raider on the Saturn... Eidos lost me as a fan of the series with 3 and as a customer entirely by the time Chronicles arrived.

They over-saturated their user base in sequels that people didn't feel compelled to complete anymore. 3 was too diverse and lost the point of raiding Tombs and alienated a lot of fans, and Revelation was far, far, far too long (40 levels as I recall) with no frickin pay off. Chronicles was almost step back in the right direction but it was also very short and easy. I rented it for 1 night and finished it.

Then in an attempt to reinvent the series they stuffed up even worse with a rushed and shallow game play edition, with an overly complicated "epic" story that was actually quite boring and character changes that bombed. Eidos had given them plenty of chances to fix their problems and when it didn't work they did what was needed and I think the choice to move CD was a very wise one. Anniversary was great and it was due to that I gave Legend a go because I'd avoided it due to the taint the series had until that point.

[rewak]

The thing you gotta remember about CORE though was they were pushed to release a game every Christmas. It's no wonder they got a bit dry. I remember a documentary (i think the one that came with Anniversary) there were interviews with them saying they were sick of seeing nothing but Lara all year round.

[The Dude]

I think Crystal Dynamics will suffer the same fate sadly.
I'd rather they finish the new game, and work on the next Legacy of Kain game.
Its well overdue.

[Rombie]

The thing you gotta remember about CORE though was they were pushed to release a game every Christmas. It's no wonder they got a bit dry. I remember a documentary (i think the one that came with Anniversary) there were interviews with them saying they were sick of seeing nothing but Lara all year round.

I'm taking that into account. Eidos screwed the pooch and doomed Core, but it still doesn't mean they made several shitty games still.

Realistically the pressure to better themselves and then the pressure again to release AOD on time is what killed it for them, and it's Eidos' fault with no doubt. In a sane world they would have gotten someone else to make alternate games, allowing the lead time on each title to be longer. In the end they did the sensible thing though, with CORE's moral and output at an all time low they passed it onto the right people.

I agree with The Dude though, Dynamics will likely get over doing Tomb Raider and want to do something else. I'd hope it would be another Kain/Soul Reaver title but you never know.

[Nomad9026]

Oh... Legacy of Kain, brings back sweet and worm memories. They definetly should make TR Underworld and finaly finish the LoC saga.

[Helegad]

I see where you're going, but here's the MAIN changes I saw:

-TR3 introduced a new graphics engine (it was also the first TR I played).
-TR4, yet again, upgraded the graphics engine and re-done a lot of animations, which was well overdue (I got sick of Lara always carefully crouching down to pick up a Medipack).
-TR:AOD could have been an excellent game, but it was released too soon. New graphics, animations, a very different story to the traditional TRs, etc.
-TR:L remade Lara into a whole new girl. It's possible that someone picked up Legend and didn't know about any of the previous games, and said while playing "I'll have to watch out for this new series!" You know what I'm saying?

However, yes, the first 5 TRs are a bit repetitive in all places, but that doesn't mean I won't persist in completing them all on my beloved PS1. You would know I recently completed the first TR; the TR I finished before that was number 3, around about 6 or 7 years ago, and I used a walkthrough pretty much the whole way. Now, that's not the way to keep a series close to your heart, is it?

[The Dude]

I agree with The Dude though, Dynamics will likely get over doing Tomb Raider and want to do something else. I'd hope it would be another Kain/Soul Reaver title but you never know.

Wouldn't really say its CD's fault though, don't Eidos have controlling interest in CD or something?

[Helegad]

Eidos has been beside TR from the start.

[James]

To be honest, I hated the series. Lara's controlling was archaic, the games weren't interesting at all to me, and by the time I was interested in playing them there was way too much stuff that I considered out of date to find the game interesting.

I played the original Tomb Raider on PSX of course, but completed it on Nokia N-Gage. I kinda wish I didn't, but I did.

When Legend came out, I heard that Lara controller properly, and tried the demo. I was hooked. Lara had become everything I'd wanted her to be as a heroine. She just seemed so much more realistic, and less cheesy than, for example, the Lara in Helegad's avatar. I just really liked her new look. Furthermore, I loved the way we had constant interaction with external members of Lara's team.

I'm currently playing through Anniversary, and although I just finish St Francis Folly (and what a pain in the ass that is) I don't like how "quiet" it is, although it creates a completely different environment and atmosphere - solitude, like Metroid in a way.

But yeah, I really like the new direction Crystal Dynamics took the series and it's definitely better for it. Angel of Darkness was terrible too. >_>

[Rombie]

TR3's engine, while "new" was still exceptionally poor. The main changes the system brought were more cosmetic and texture based. The gameplay was still the same, right down to the grid based strategy. The concept behind the cosmetic change was to stop the title look like it did in the first two to disguise the gameplay grids faults and thus change the traditional design look, however while it did do this at first glance, once you sit there and play an hour or two of it at the end of the day it still plays exactly like the two games before it - grid and all.

Aforementioned animations aside (and each title has seen changes in the series animations) TRRev doesn't use a different engine than TR3... they just listed to the fans wanting more Tombs and less other environments and then just went a little crazy about it giving about 40 levels of the more or less same thing.

Dude - Yeah, CD is owned by Eidos (has been since 1998) so it's not like it's up to them, but you'd hope the people operating the sub would tell Eidos they would like to work on something else if they get over TR titles to avoid ending up as CORE Mark II.

[The Dude]

Eidos has been beside TR from the start.

Was actually referring to the possibility of Eidos having stock in Crystal Dynamics therefore demanding that CD develop TR over any other games.

[Helegad]

She just seemed so much more realistic, and less cheesy than, for example, the Lara in Helegad's avatar.

CHEEZIES? BLASPHEMIES! U DONT HURT MY POOR LARA!!11!1!!!

The voice acting has always been good. I liked that part of TR the most. A witty and inventive script with decent voice actors. HOTD2, shove it up your ass.